Tech Industry Growth Depends on Having a Prepared Workforce! Are American workers ready to take on jobs now held by those with H1B visas?

Brilliant minds are gathering in Scranton, PA on June 14 and 15 to discuss Global Competition in the Technology Industry, Business Growth Opportunities in Technology and Job Training Needs of the Technology Industry at the NERETA Job Creation Summit (summit.nereta.org)

Day one of the NERETA Job Creation Summit will concentrate on developing a talent pipeline for the Tech Industry and day two will focus on supporting growth businesses who are the job creators!

“It comes down to US workers being globally competitive,” said Colleen LaRose, President and CEO of NERETA. “And global competitiveness in the world today means that you must have a workforce that is innovative, nimble and well-trained. Getting that prepared workforce here in the US will require local workforce development, economic development and higher education professionals to collaborate in each of their local regions on goals and objectives with Tech Industry leaders to advance the skills capabilities of workers in the industry so that the US Tech Industry is more globally competitive. In light of the crackdown on the H1B visa program by the Trump administration, the issue of training US workers to improve their technology skills could not be more timely!”

“Tech Industry leaders are urged to reach out to their local workforce development, economic development and higher education administrators to form a team to come to the Summit,” explained LaRose. “These teams of administrators, along with their local Tech Industry leaders, will learn how to work together more effectively at this two-day event to help their local/regional Technology Industry become more globally competitive. As the US ramps up its competitive stance in technology by investing in worker skills, more good jobs will be created in the US.”

“Developing a strategy to focus resources in a region on one industry is called a ‘sector’ or ‘cluster’ strategy,” LaRose continued. “Intentionally working to grow a particular industry in a region has been proven to be the most successful model …and will ultimately be the only way for the US to win the international race to dominate technology use and production in the world into the future.”

Participants in the two-day event will also receive an eight-month course (one webinar per month) after the NERETA Job Creation Summit to help them continue the work of aligning their local goals and objectives to assure they are optimizing Tech Industry capabilities in their region.

The summit will teach systems thinking, competitive market analysis and strategic goals alignment. These are not common ways of thinking by public administrators, but we need them to learn how to think this way and work collaboratively to help the Tech Industry businesses in their region thrive.

The list of presenters at the Summit is a veritable who’s who of experts in the fields of technology advancement, cluster strategies, and business and entrepreneurship support. Author Bill Holstein, Tess Posner from TechHire, Eric Hansen from Economic Transformations Group, Paul Bateson from the Edward Lowe Foundation, Patricia Greene from Babson University, Maria Meyers from Sourcelink, Eric Pages from Entreworks, Greg Leroy from Good Jobs First, just to name a few!

LaRose concluded, “It is imperative that the US makes a national a concerted effort to lead the world in technology if we are going to retain our prominent global position.” Each local area of the US is a link in the chain of our national economy. Therefore, it is these local public and educational administrators who must listen more closely to tech industry leaders to understand their needs and work collaboratively with them to fulfill those needs if the US is going to win the global race for tech industry dominance for the long-term.”